Two hours before last night's Planning Board meeting, Competitive Power Ventures withdrew documents that could have helped clear the way for it to build a power plant on Industrial Road.
The company withdrew its request for what is called an Approval Not Required plan that would have made unbuildable a small chunk of the 14-acre Industrial Road property.
Such an action likely would have grandfathered the land into the town's current zoning bylaws which permits the type of power plant Competitive Power is proposing to build along with "any other lawful use" of property.
Planning Board members were baffled by the development.
Town Meeting will meet Monday to once again discuss zoning bylaw rewrites. The "any other lawful use" clause in the current bylaws scantly survived deletion last March at special Town Meeting.
If that clause is voided this time around, Competitive Power Vice President Braith Kelly has said he fears his company would not be able to pursue its 580-megawatt power plant proposal through local permitting.
Planning Board member Betty Nashawaty said Approval Not Requireds (ANR) are standard procedure and must be approved if there are no typographical errors and certain requirements are met.
Competitive Power was forced to withdraw its initial ANR request to the Planning Board two weeks ago following a clerical snafu that identified the Industrial Road site as being in Westwood, not Walpole.
No such errors were present on the new request, said Nashawaty, and all requirements were met.
James Brady, local attorney for Competitive Power, submitted a letter to Planning Board Chairman Jack Conroy and the town clerk requesting their plan be withdrawn just two hours before their scheduled meeting with the Planning Board at 7 p.m.
Planning Board members voted unanimously in favor of accepting the withdrawal.
Brady did not give a reason for the move in his short letter and power plant representatives were not present at the meeting.
The board as a whole said they have no idea why Competitive Power withdrew the plan.
"They would not tell us anything anyway," said Nashawaty.
Speaking to a sparse meeting room crowd, Planning Board Vice Chairman Nancy Mackenzie said she does not know where Competitive Power will go from here.
As far as Competitive Power's strategy in withdrawing the plan, she said in an interview after the meeting that "inquiring minds want to know."
M
M
